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Progress on insulated nanowires

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With the emerging field of nanotechnology and the constant miniaturization computer circuits, new methods are needed in the creation of materials used in these technologies. Progress is being made in creating materials for the nanoworld and recently, the journal Nature has published two papers outlining different processes for production of insulated nanowires. In September, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania used a polymer approach creating self-assembling and repairing nanowires. Electrically conductive materials were attached to branched polymers which would then self-assemble to a DNA-like spiral. The insulating polymer surrounds conductive molecules in a wire ~10 nanometers in diameter.

In a second paper published this past week, researchers at Harvard outlined a process using chemical vapor deposition (CVD) creating a "triple decker" wire of silicon, silicon oxide and germanium.

Using their technique, the nanowires are grown by gradually building up thin, uniform shells around a nanometre-sized cluster of gold atoms. The nanowires had boron-doped silicon shells surrounding intrinsic silicon, as well as silicon wrapped around a silicon oxide core. They also investigated the growth of crystalline germanium-silicon and silicon-germanium core-shell heterostructures.

The Harvard team seems to have a leg up since they have already developed nanowire field-effect transistors. They believe this basic discovery can be developed into advanced semiconductor hybrid devices in a relatively short time. I haven't seen either paper to see which method has an advantage over the other. The U. Penn. method seems easier to work with and tweak, but the Harvard method looks to have a conductivity advantage. If anyone has read both papers, feel free to comment in the discussion thread.